Equality

Call To Action

The tobacco epidemic’s impact is fundamentally unequal. To find more customers, the tobacco industry markets its products aggressively to women and children. Furthermore, in most countries, individuals with lower incomes and less education are far more likely to be tobacco users, and to pay a steep personal price for their addictions through poor health and the misallocation of precious resources to addictive tobacco products. In 24 countries, more girls than boys are now smoking tobacco, which foreshadows a major and ominous shift in who is using these deadly products.

Disparity in tobacco deaths

Percentage of smoking-related deaths in mixed-race (mixed black and white ancestry, generally with lower socioeconomic status) and white men (ages 35-74 years) in South Africa: 1999–2007

Tobacco-related deaths are more common in people with lower socioeconomic status. In South Africa, mixed race men tend to be of lower socioeconomic status than white men.

Brain Cells

Tobacco smoke can affect brain cells adversely. Several studies have shown atrophy of grey matter in smokers’ brains, which may make them more susceptible to dementia. Also, children born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy may have neural alterations similar to those in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

In 2007, South Australia became the first Australian state to ban smoking in cars in which children were travelling. “While it is an adult’s right to choose to smoke and expose themselves to all the associated and well-known health risks, this ban aims to protect children who could not otherwise protect themselves.”
–Katy Gallagher, Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, 2012

Sources

Underestimated Exposure

Exposure to secondhand smoke in children brought to a hospital for asthma or breathing problems: Cincinnati, USA, 2010–2011

While only one third of parents reported that their children were exposed to secondhand smoke, laboratory tests confirmed that, in reality, 80% of children brought to a hospital (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center) in the United States for asthma or breathing problems were exposed to secondhand smoke. These findings indicate that many respiratory diseases that might not be linked to secondhand smoke based on self-reports may in fact be related to the exposure.

Sources

“…when child and maternal mortality are falling universally around the world, the threat of a rise in tobacco is heading in the wrong direction…The developing world is about to enter a phase of rapid growth in tobacco at a time when it can least afford it” –Keith Hansen, The World Bank Group, 2012

Sources

Hansen K. Remarks by Mr. Keith Hansen, Director of Human Development for Latin America and Caribbean – The World Bank Group: The Tobacco Atlas DC Launch. D.C., USA: The National Press Club; 2012.

“The yawning poverty gap in smoking exacerbates existing, and unconscionable, health disparities. Endgame strategies, therefore, must pay particular attention to the least advantaged, focusing on the equitable distribution of benefits. What justice requires is that the poor do not feel the blowback of the last blasts in the war against Big Tobacco” –Keith Hansen, The World Bank Group, 2012

Methods

We calculated the proportion of all tobacco users who engaged in water pipe use. We want to emphasize that women in Middle Eastern countries who are frowned upon for using cigarettes, as they are a form of tobacco typically consumed in public, are more likely to pick up water pipe use. I’m showing that when women choose to smoke tobacco they often use water pipe at a higher rate than their male counterparts. This does not mean that women smoke more water pipe than men, but simply that among those women who smoke, water pipe is disproportionately popular.

Sources

In 2013, Cancer Research UK (CR UK), the UK’s country’s largest health charity, produced shocking video clips of young schoolchildren examining various packets of cigarettes. Tellingly, a red pack reminded one boy of Ferrari (whose Formula One racing cars are sponsored by Marlboro); two boys likened a bright yellow pack to the sun, one adding, ‘it makes you almost happy just by looking at it.’ And a girl clearly loved a pink pack so much that she cuddled it, enthusing to her neighbour, ‘Pink, pink, pink!’